In a capital sketch of Captain Cook, appearing in the Sydney _Town and
Country Journal_ on February 22, 1879, when the noble New South Wales
statue to Captain Cook was unveiled, the writer observed, "what the
legendary Æneas was to Rome, Captain James Cook is to Eastern
Australia."
Though the remark only referred to the remarkable wanderings by both men
over various seas, the word _legendary_ may, in a way, be applied to the
two. The voyage of the _Trojan_ has been regarded by the learned men of
Europe as mythical, or, at least, explanatory of shifting reckonings of
time, or to such groupings of constellations as should elucidate human
fancies, and the inventions of quasi-historians.
Æneas was but a poetical creation, and Cook was a living hero of the
ocean. Yet, around the narratives of Cook's first southern voyage, when
he was said to have discovered Eastern Australia, have gathered so many
mysteries, as almost to give them the colour of myths.
Suspicions regarding the official account of the voyage arose at an
early date. It leaked out, from those who had accompanied Cook, that the
recorded official Admiralty narrative did not agree with their
recollection of the several facts. The death of the author soon after
the issue of his work increased the embarrassment as to the source of
the materials from which he made his compilation. The second of Cook's
voyages, so ably described by the Dean of Windsor, had the advantage of
genuine logs, together with the presence and active assistance of the
navigator himself. It unfortunately happened that most of the actors in
the first or New Holland voyage were out of reach for questions whilst
the story was being written.
Dr. Hawkesworth meant to prepare as interesting a narrative as he could,
and tried to please home parties as flatteringly as circumstances
permitted. Thus, men of science would be gratified by the selection of
the place as _Botany Bay_, an Admiralty officer would be glad of the
adoption of his name in _Port Jackson_, while the Dutch appellation of
_New Holland_ gave place to the more British one of _New South Wales_.
Even _Torres Strait_, that honoured the navigators of Spain and
Portugal, surrendered to the English name of _Endeavour Strait_.
The value of Cook's second voyage in the _Resolution_, which was brought
out by the Dean of Windsor, had the advantage of good logs, with the
presence of Captain Cook at its revision, and was, consequently, never
questioned as that of the _Endeavour_ had been under the editorship of
Dr. Hawkesworth, which had a far more novel and romantic story to tell.
In a remarkable letter to Sir Joseph Banks by John Frederick Schiller,
German translator of Hawkesworth's voyage, and dated November 14, 1773,
the writer expresses the deep concern of a German bookseller at the
wrong done to the sale of this translation by some published remarks in
England, impugning the correctness of the official Admiralty narrative.
He therefore seeks "some lines" from Sir Joseph, as Cook's fellow
voyager, in refutation of those injurious assertions. The German scholar
adds: "Mr. Ferber, an eminent mineralogist, says he has of late made a
literary tour through Europe, and after his return from England asserted
at Berlin that
"Not only the respective Commanders, Messrs. Biron, Wallis,
Carteret, &c., had publicly protested against Dr. Hawkesworth's
account of their voyages, as containing misrepresented facts, but
also that especially Messrs. Banks and Solander had publicly
declared that they had never delivered any Papers of theirs into
that Editor's hands, and that the Public was to wait for their own
narrative, which was to be published within 3 or 4 years."
Mr. Schiller goes on to say: "In order to support these assertions, Mr.
Ferber is said to have produced a letter which he affirmed to have
received from Mr. Banks, and in which all these assertions are plainly
expressed and corroborated."
If, then, suspicions were excited immediately after the publication of
our authorised and popular version of Cook's voyage, it is not
surprising that further investigation, as now made, should develop
renewed scepticism. The recent record of the London Press that the
Corner's Log had been pronounced by the Admiralty experts to be genuine,
and in Cook's own handwriting, might well puzzle outsiders.
Had Sir Joseph Banks publicly answered the appeal of Mr. Schiller in
1773, and satisfied the world as to the authenticity of Dr.
Hawkesworth's story, the necessity of any subsequent controversy might
have been avoided. In that appeal to Banks and Solander "in the cause of
Truth, of Justice, of Honour and Humanity," we read that the two
naturalists "intend to publish in five or six years hence, in sixteen or
eighteen folios and two thousand copper plates, and totally unconnected
with Dr. Hawkesworth's narrative." Such a great work did not appear. Why
not? History does not tell.
There has been sufficient reason for the present writer's long silence
upon this inquiry, and particularly since he had reported on Cook's logs
some six years ago.
Now, however, as the acting archivist is just entering his eighty-fifth
year, Colonial friends here deemed it a proper time for the printing of
this pamphlet in the cause of Truth, Justice, and Honour, it being his
last contribution to Colonial history, the series of which began in 1845
by the publication of his _Geography for Australian Youth_, which was
the first production, by the Australian Press, of any _Geography of
Australia_.